The present invention relates to an output data controller that receives output data generated on archived by a data processor directly or through a line and transmits the received data to an output unit and also relates to a data output system using this data output controller.
For example, the print data, generated or archived by personal computers (PCs) or file servers, is generally printed out by a printing device. In data output systems, which is equipped with a plurality of PCs or a plurality of printing devices, a data output controller called a print server is interposed between a PC or a file server and a printing device.
In the case where a plurality of PCs are present, the PCs are interconnected through a network such as a local area network (LAN), and a file server and a print server are provided on this network. Furthermore, a plurality of kinds of printing devices are connected to this print server.
It is possible in a system such as this to print out desirable print information from any PC to any printing device connected to the print server. In that case the print data is temporarily stored in the file server and then is transmitted from this file server through the print server to a specified printing device, by means of which the data is printed out.
However, if a request to print is performed from a PC, data will be unconditionally printed out from a printing device, as described above, and consequently, when the secrecy of print data is high, there is the problem that others can view the data printed out from the printing device.
Then, there is, for example, a printing device described in Japan Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4-4238. If the user of a work station selects a password protection mode and outputs print data, command data representative of the password protection mode will then be output from the work station to the printing device. The printing device, if receiving this command data, will inquire of the user about the password number. The user sends the password number to the printing device by using the indication section of the work station, and data is not printed out until this user operates the confirmation section of the printing device (i.e., until passwords match with each other).
However, in the aforementioned Japan Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 4-4238, when a network system is constructed, a printing device with functions meeting various demands cannot be freely selected because the printing device must have a function of confirming whether or not password numbers match with each other, and there is the problem that the degree of freedom of the constructability of the network system is low.
Also, there is the problem that the work stations connected to the network system all have to be equipped with a function of issuing a command representative of a password protection mode.
In addition, in conventional printing systems (including the case where a printing device is connected to a work station without a line), in order to generate a plurality of copies of a print, a plurality of print requests must be output from a work station, or a necessary number of copies of the print generated by a printing device must be made by a copying machine, so there is the problem that the operability is reduced.